With the Covid-19 virus issue, I'm being very careful in following the advise to stay indoors. Thankfully, I have plenty to do and one of the activities involves my flight simulation hobby...

Am currently focusing on the African continent and would like to share some screenshots I took along the way.

Yesterday: Cape Town, South Africa to Windhoek, Namibia with an Airbus A319 series aircraft. I was a bit disappointed when landing at Windhoek... the terminal looked like a McDonalds drive-in and... it was closed too!

I mainly fly the "baby" busses (A318, A319, A320, A321) but do have PMDG Boeing B737-800/900, B747-400 and B777-200/300 as well. The Boeings are super realistic and therefore even more challenging to fly. My latest purchase is the Airbus A330-300 which is much larger than the baby busses BUT similar to operate.

I still have a lot to learn so I'll take one plane manufacturer at a time.

Hi folks, just want to know if there is a genuine interest for posting the above. If so, is there anything specific that you want to see / know?

I am of course fully aware that our site is mainly dedicated towards Nikon equipment and photography but with so little activity, I thought that a slight deviation from the norm could potentially lead to additional interest / activity.

Appreciate your feedback and I would be more than happy to share any info...

Hi folks, just want to know if there is a genuine interest for posting the above. If so, is there anything specific that you want to see / know?

I am of course fully aware that our site is mainly dedicated towards Nikon equipment and photography but with so little activity, I thought that a slight deviation from the norm could potentially lead to additional interest / activity.

Appreciate your feedback and I would be more than happy to share any info...

Stay safe and... maintain your distance.

Hi Herman,

I'm speaking only for myself, but given the flood of news about COVID-19, your posts are a most welcome diversion. Looking forward to seeing you try your hand at the A-330 and the Boeings.

My flight simulation program used is Lockheed Martin Prepar3d version 4.5
Academic. The main advantage being that it is a 64bit program as opposed to the previous 32bit versions prior to the 4 series.
For further details see www.prepar3d.com

For schedules and flight equipment references I use: www.flightaware.com
The Swedish company Navigraph provides all navigation FMS data and Jeppesen charts. The data is distributed as AIRAC followed by a cycle number pertaining to the period of validity.
Obtained by subscription via www.navigraph.com

Yesterday: Windhoek, Namibia to Durban, South Africa with an Airbus A319 series aircraft... As you will notice a rather strange routing but similar to highways there are certain corridors for entering countries.

Many thanks for the post, Herman. One quick note: Air Canada retired the B-747's a few years ago. B-777's, A-330's and B-787's are their wide-bodies.

Because it's in northern Alberta, Edmonton is always colder than us. Winter temperatures of minus 40 C aren't at all unusual for them. B-r-rr!

The good news is that we're about 700 miles SW of Edmonton. Our climate is almost identical to that of Seattle. While it's a bit colder than normal, today's forecast high is plus 10 C. The long range forecast is even better, calling for sunshine and highs of plus 16 C by next Friday.

No not really... we have been getting daily visits from Lufthansa 747-400s ferrying tourists stuck here by the virus. Special arrangements are required as a lot of international flights are cancelled. I see on 'Flight Aware' that Lufthansa are doing similar flights from Auckland as well, an A380-800 on yesterdays flight. The pilots all do a flyover the city to thank us for looking after their passengers. The flights all head to Bangkok, 10-11 hours away, before heading on to Europe.

"Photography is man's attempt at immortality. To save our memories and share them. The places we have been, the people we have known, the things we have done. To share with others for eternity, or until the images fade away."

Wow, what a system. I used to have ProPilot and thought that was great. Flew heavies coast to coast. Looked at the site, bit out of my range at this point. My other hobbies are taking up the slack.

Good to hear / see you again, Cliff!

Yes, flight simulation has come a long way. It captured my interest since the eighties but must admit that I had lost interest for a number of years until I heard that it now operates on the basis of 64bits. That has made it a totally different ballgame as no more of those dreaded OOM's (out of memory messages).

The technological advancement allows me to run multiple add-on programmes simultaneously. I have approximately 7 environmental programs (some with active wifi for capturing on the spot data) running in the background as well as a complex ATC / flightplanning system, on-board cabin announcement (various dual languages i.e. Dutch/English, German/English, French/English, Portuguese/English and Spanish/English. Announcements from both cockpit and cabin crew are triggered by certain elements. AI flight progam for creating realistic airport activity, etc.